My Motivation To Start A Career Path In Medicine
As I’ve mentioned in my initial interview, I have always wanted to study medicine. It has been my dream for as long as I can remember. A vivid memory of five year old me walking in to my pediatricians office for the first time is something I will never forget. I remember my mood immediately brightening up after seeing the walls covered entirely in colorful children’s drawings and rows of shelves arranged with 3D organ models (I think this may be the first time I fell in love with science). I was always greeted by my doctor with a smile and treated with kindness, and just a couple visits later I found myself thinking- this is who I want to be and this is what I want to do when I grow up. I don’t think my pediatrician even knows that he is my inspiration but he truly instilled in me the love of doing what he does. Over the years this love gradually turned into passion as I learnt more everyday about the way the human body worked.
As I took a step further towards an interest in anatomy by choosing biology and chemistry in A-levels I realized I also had to decide if medicine was what I really wanted to pursue. With much to consider I took a step back to weigh my options. I looked at it from all angles and made a pros and cons list, but with each list almost equal in size to the other I looked at alternate career paths that were related to the two very things that fascinated me, biology and medicine. Amongst many, the two that peaked my interest were nursing and biomedical sciences, most of all what I could specialize in after my bachelors- particularly neonatal nursing and forensics. Consulting my aunt who was a doctor and a few friends in similar fields, I was encouraged to pursue biomedical sciences. Even months after my decision I was excited about what was to come and that’s how I knew I had made the right one.
What I want to do in the future? Where do I see myself in ten years? Those are questions with a variety of indefinite answers for me. Although I started out with wanting to become a pediatrician, over the years I was inspired by other events in my life and that changed to an oncologist to an obstetrician and most recently a neurosurgeon. And this was one that stuck with me. I had always felt like there wasn’t much to the brain because it wasn’t widely talked about, that was until I met the fictional character named Dr. shepherd on the drama series, Grey's anatomy. He always spoke about his job with immense pride and enthusiasm and the more I understood the character the more intrigued I became with what I was learning. So much so that I would go online and read articles about neurologists and cases that they dealt with in which they had no idea as to what may be causing irrational behavioral symptoms in patients. They would observe them for months, sometimes years on end until they came up with a diagnosis, and that too one that they were not absolutely sure of. The fact that there was so little we knew about the brain and so much more that was unexplored drew me in.
Since forensics was something that I’d always been interested in, its what I thought I’d end up doing when I chose biomedical sciences. However, after joining the university and learning that I can get my masters in neuroscience I was thrilled that I didn’t have to give up on something that I was passionate about. I am fully aware that likes and interests change and develop over the years and so there is nothing I want to commit to right away. I want to be able to have full knowledge of all aspects of biomedical sciences and to also gain insight through learning experiences before I finally decide that this is what I want to do.
